Daniel 9:24–27

Gabriel was commissioned to reveal to Daniel the prophecy of the "seventy weeks"; the word week here indicating a period of seven, it may be of days, or as here it clearly is, of years. We have just seen Daniel stirred to confession and prayer by the discovery that the seventy years of the desolations had nearly run their course; he is now to learn that seventy years, multiplied by seven, were to pass before, according to the divine reckoning, full release and blessing would be reached.

First, notice that verse 24 gives you the whole period. "Seventy weeks are decreed" means that God chose to cut a certain portion out of the mass of time for one special purpose. But did the portions He cut out — the seventy weeks — all run in a row? Or was there a gap or break between them? That remains to be seen.

Daniel had been reading the books and praying about the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Now Gabriel is going to show him something that will take place in "seventy sevens," which means seventy times seven years. Seventy sevens comes to 490 years.

So it is the Jews who are called, not "My people," but "your people" — Daniel's people. "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city." Jerusalem is still called a holy city, true; but it is no longer God's own city. It is "your" — Daniel's — holy city. All this makes the aim of the seventy weeks plain. It is not Christianity or the Church that is in view, but Jerusalem — Daniel's holy city, and Daniel's people, the Jews.

All these expressions look forward to the full restoration of Daniel's people and city in blessing. The transgression will end — the transgression they were scattered for — now that Jerusalem has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. God will pardon their iniquity (Isaiah 40:2). He will bring in everlasting righteousness, His own righteousness (Isaiah 51:4-8). Visions and prophecies will close for ever (see Zechariah 13). And the holy of holies will be set apart again, made holy to match the glory of Him who will dwell there once more (see Exodus 40:9).

For instance, "to finish the transgression" means, word for word, to restrain it. That phrase on its own might raise a small question. But he adds, "to put an end to sin" — word for word, to seal up sins — "and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness." These words make the sense plain… So we have both sides: with sins, to close them; with righteousness, to bring it in — and not only to bring it in, but to bring it in for ever. Righteousness is not only given but secured for ever.

I cannot find that any person in the Old Testament is called "holy of holies" (Daniel 9:24). Things are given that title. In Ezekiel 45:3 the sanctuary is called "holy of holies." So Ezekiel sets a precedent: Daniel is describing the sanctuary here. And since he prayed for the sanctuary (v. 17), the city and the people (vv. 18, 19), the angel's answer fits his prayer exactly.

In fact God has completed everything. He has sent the Messiah. He has presented Him to the people. The blood of the covenant has been shed, and propitiation made — the sacrifice that answers sin before God. But have these blessings taken effect for the Jews as a nation? The answer is that nothing has been done… We must not look at the satisfaction apart from its application. We must ask what it has done for the Jewish nation.

We do receive the blessing of the gospel now, while the Jews as a people are wrapped up in unbelief. We know that Christ suffered on the cross and has gone on high, so we do not wait until then for expiation… For them, everlasting righteousness will be brought in later, vision and prophet sealed up, and the holy of holies anointed. For us who walk by faith, not sight, God foresaw and gave "some better thing."

The seventy weeks are divided into three parts: seven, sixty-two, and one. Weeks of years are clearly meant. These weeks do not date from the command to build the temple. That command came in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (Ezra 1:1). They date from the command to restore and build the city of Jerusalem, which Artaxerxes gave in his twentieth year (Nehemiah 2:1).

Surely this is a remarkable way of expressing it. The natural way, we might think, would be to say sixty-nine. But no: it is "seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks." There is a design in this. God never says a word without a blessed reason — a wise and gracious motive. So there is one here… This is why the seven weeks are named. The rebuilding of Jerusalem, hindered though it was, mattered to God. His word both predicts and records it.

The street is where the life of the city gathers. It is the meeting place, and the first part of the city to get houses. The moat is an extra defence to protect the city.

In short, God singles out these seven weeks to give us not just a history but a prediction of the troubles. The derision, the hatred, the enmity, the attempts to destroy, the constant intrigues and plotting in and around the land, the carelessness of the people, the faults of the princes, the unfaithfulness of the priests — all these things worked against them. The bitterest and most humiliating of all their sorrows they found among themselves… So much does God think of His people in the day of small things.

The Hebrew word "Nageed" means a "leader," a "prince."… If, then, the words "unto Messiah the Prince" refer to the Lord Jesus, what point in His life on earth does the word "unto" reach? There seems to be only one time in the Lord's ministry when the people owned and hailed Him as their King: His last entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12-15). He was born "King of the Jews," but only then did the people own Him as King in public… So we may safely conclude that the word "unto" points to a time six days before the Lord's death. The King was owned, and the sixty-nine weeks ended.

Counting a year for a day, 69 weeks = 483 years. The prophetic year has 360 days, so 483 years x 360 = 173,880 days. That brings us to the 10th day of the month Nisan in the 18th year of Tiberius Caesar, the Roman Emperor. It is the very day when our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.

The key comes in now. It explains the difficulty stated at the beginning: why the seventieth week is cut off from the sixty-nine. The death of Christ tore the chain, and broke off the relations of the people of Israel with God. So, the Jews having rejected their own Messiah, the last week is for a time set aside.

I say then that the margin here gives the scope, in my opinion, more exactly. Our version — "but not for himself" — implies that He was cut off for other people... He was cut off for our sins. He suffered in atonement for our iniquities. So people saw the death of Christ only as expiation. But that is not the point here. The meaning is that Messiah should be cut off and have nothing. His inheritance is completely gone. His people refuse Him. His land is not His to hold. His kingdom is denied Him. Everything that belonged to Messiah is taken away from Him.

The correct translation is, "Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing." That is, the Messiah did not take the kingdom, though it was His by right. He was rejected and crucified, so He could only have taken it by judgment in power. But His mission then was not judgment; it was salvation (John 3:17). So He was "cut off," and went back to heaven with "nothing."

A new element of great importance is also introduced: the Messiah should be cut off. He would have nothing of what belonged to Him by right. The consequence of this would be the destruction of the city and of the sanctuary, desolation and war. It would be the prince of another empire, not yet in existence, who should destroy the city and the sanctuary. God's relations with the people were now completely broken off for the time — even with a believing remnant.

When Christ was cut off, sixty-nine weeks had run their course. There only remained one week — or seven years — before His kingdom would be set up. But the Jews rejected their Messiah; so the fulfilment of the prophecy is put off... During this time there is a great blank in the history of God's ancient people. God gives no account of how long it lasts... So there is a huge and important gap between verses 26 and 27, and the prophecy gives no details about it.

All agree that this is the destruction of the city by the Romans. Most therefore assume that Titus is the "prince who is to come," but there are many reasons against this. For why should the people be mentioned at all? Is it not plain that both the people and the prince are stressed here? Yet the people alone do this — and they are the people of the prince who is to come.

The more immediate result was to be the destruction of the city and the sanctuary by "the people of the prince who is to come." Now this prince is the "little horn" we read of in Daniel 7. He is the head of the Roman Empire in its revived and last stage, and we identified him with the first "beast" of Revelation 13. This Roman despot is still to come, but the Roman people were the dominant power in the time of our Lord, and they did destroy Jerusalem very thoroughly.

That destruction was only the beginning of God's disciplinary judgments upon them. So the prophecy moves on to "its end," which is to be "with a flood," or "an overflow." We judge this to mean that the sorrows and persecutions that have followed the Jews through all these centuries will rise to flood height just before the end.

Now I ask those who argue that Christ was meant, what sense does that give here? One week can mean nothing but a period of seven years. Was the new covenant ever made for seven years? ... For Christ's is an everlasting covenant — this is only made for seven years. When and how did Christ make a covenant for seven years?

So the claim is this. The future head of the revived Roman empire will make a covenant with "the many," that is, with most of the Jews, who by that time will be back in their own land. The mention of the sacrifice and the offering puts it beyond doubt that Jerusalem is in view, and that the temple has been rebuilt.

These seventy weeks relate to Daniel's people and to Jerusalem. The church period, then, in which we now are, is no part of those weeks. As a matter of fact it is a gap between Daniel 9:26 and Daniel 9:27... So the whole present period is a gap. It runs from the cutting off of the Messiah to the appearance of the Roman prince who confirms a covenant with the many, and it forms no part of the seventy weeks.

He makes this agreement, not with all the Jews, but with "the many," that is, with most of the people, in contrast with the few, the "little flock."

They have refused the foundation God laid in Zion. So they will seek shelter under the wing of the one to whom Satan will then have given his seat, his authority, and his great power. (See Rev. 13:2.) But their covenant with death will be "annulled, and their agreement with hell will not stand." Daniel 9:27 refers to this.

The Jews will lean on this man for protection from other enemies. Then he himself becomes their great enemy. He breaks his own covenant. In the middle of the week, at the end of three and a half years, "he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease."

Matthew 24:15 calls this image "the abomination of desolation." It will "stand in the holy place," the Jewish temple, as a bold challenge to the authority of God. Daniel 9:27 calls this image "the wing of abominations." That phrase points to the sheltering of idols. Because of this God sends "a desolator," the King of the North, against Israel.

That week still waits to be fulfilled in due time... the last week belongs to the Roman opponent of Christ. He is the future political head of the Roman empire, and he makes a covenant with the mass of Daniel's people, in Daniel's holy city. But that seventieth week ends with the Messiah coming in power and glory. Some will help and some will hinder, and Jerusalem will be full of wickedness. God will still keep every promise.